Just wanted to give a reminder - today is the last day we are accepting sample articles for being a reporter. I plan to make the decisions with a cool beer and tasty cigar Sunday afternoon, so get them in so I have something fun to read!

Remember, you must submit a sample work to be considered. If for some reason you missed the first post, then get writing! I'm not asking for a Pulitzer Prize piece here, just something so I can see if you're a good fit for the rest of us crazies at LC :)

The best combo was Lich's Robe, Crystal Staff of Mana, Mana Cloak and Blue Potion which increased regen to 41 MP per tick.

The other MP regen methods: Houses/Inns, Amulet of Wisdom and Meditation spell weren't counted here, but it should be said that at Meditation is +5 MP per tick and WIS amulet has varying effects based on your WIS and the use of Blue Potions.

And now for my number crunching with the new IR report numbers. As before, this should not be used to make any interpretation of the financials or business viability of NC. Their profit numbers are a totally different story. :) These numbers are just to see how many people are playing the game.

This time, these US numbers *do* include LoA server. If you recall in February, I expected the LoA numbers to significantly increase the total monthly subscriber base, but it didn't exactly do that :(

Good ^^: Between Dec 2002 and Mar 2003, the Lineage World has gained 2 servers (1 in Korea and our LoA).

Bad T_T: Total Global Mar 2003 Monthly Access is 2,713,413 down from 2,875,853 in Sep 2002 (down 6.0%). This loss is despite the growth of the Hong Kong customers (+17.7%) and the Japanese customers (+14.3%).

Neutral o.o: There are 1 million less monthly subscribers in Mar 2003 vs Sep 2001 in Korea. However, registered IPs have been steadily on the rise (increase of ~30,000) since Dec 2002.

Good ^^: On the US servers, the ratio of daily access to monthly access has gone up from 0.506 to 0.592 (but the total number of subscribers has gone down). This means that people are playing more on average.

Bad T_T: Based on these numbers, 0.344% of NC's Lineage customers play on US servers, down from 0.346% in December 2002. Insignificant change, really.

Conclusion: On a scale of 0-10, where 10 is "Looks like Lineage is going to be the only game in the world!" and 0 is "Bail! Bail!", I would rate this report as 5.

Their new growth plan is to attract three different markets of users which they name "Market-Specific" with City of Heroes, Shining Lore, Exarch and Auto Assault, "Frontiers/New Concepts" with Guild Wars and Tabula Rasa and "Hard Core" with Lineage, Lineage II and Aion.

Aion seems to be a new game that is separate from Lineage and Lineage II. They expect to release it in 2004 and describe it as "Quarter View 3D Game, Medieval Fantasy, User Friendly, Game release in 2004." Notably absent from this entire report is describing Lineage 3D as a separate entity. Plans for Lineage remain as "Initiation Part II, Quality Improvement and Graphic Upgrade." Another thing that is missing is a plan for a console version of Lineage, however, they still mention wanting to diversify into the Console platform.

As for the release dates, the names have changed, but the years have stayed the same. Here they are:

Lineage II - 2003

Aion - 2004 (formerly Untitled)

Shining Lore - 2003

City of Heroes - 2003

Exarch - 2003 (formerly Trade Wars)

Auto Assault - 2004 (formerly Wreckage)

Tabula Rasa - 2004

Guild Wars - 2004 (formerly ArenaNet)

You can assume that the dates refer to release in the country it's being developed in.

All US Lineage servers will be brought down for a maintenance reset on Wednesday, May 28th at 10:00 AM CDT. There will be no new content published at that time; however, we will be concluding the Lost Treasure Week event during the maintenance period.

Just posted a translation of the quest description from Lineage Playforum (http://community.playforum.net:8080/bbs/prog/column?action=read&iid=10051004&kid=4133) on the Korean Test servers to the Quest Guide. The quest requires 1 representative from all four classes that is level 50+. Will it require level 50 Dark Elf too when that comes? Can you take it more than once? Will it change from test server before it goes live? We don't know.

Also added the maps from the level 50 quest to the Map Guide, thanks to chizuna.com

Some interesting notes: One of the knights who took the quest took over 300 condensed clears and over 60 braves. The quest took that group 5 hours to complete. On the other Korean Test server, there was no level 50 prince, so the GM filled in.

Join us on the Depardieu, Ken Rauhel, and Lands of Aden servers for Lost Treasure Week! Monsters throughout the entire land of Aden will have a greater chance to carry coins and loot in their pockets – just waiting for the skilled adventurer to claim! The event will commence with a brief server reset at 10:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 22nd and will end with the regular weekly maintenance period on Wednesday, May 28th.
update: looks like NC cleared up the details of the events. The section in bold is what was changed.

A player from the Korean Lineage Test server emailed us with some more details on the quest as told by the NPCs. A rumor?

He says that a greater evil than Ken Rauhel has been found and that you are asked to go to the Tower of Insolence to stop this evil: the resurrection of Balrog (or as he is known on our servers, Valok)

For completing this quest (how, I do not know, but I did notice 4 new map directories in the Lineage Korean Test directory, implying there were 4 new dungeon floors - of course, they could be something completely different, so don't get too excited ^^), you will get:

Added level 50 quest. This quest is very difficult and you need your friends help. Go see Dicarding in the Ivory Tower. (It's unclear if there is more than one quest, more info to come as we find out :)

Lich's Robe can be enchanted.

Fixed non-PvP server's /duel command. Both players have to be in the same zone, however, you cannot duel in a safety zone. Area effect magic will not work in a duel.

Dlirk took pictures and we're developing them. We'll post them soon! -amer
So I just got back from E3, which is basically a big gaming convention. I spent around five hours there, and probably spent around 2 hours in the NC Soft booth. It was one of the biggest booths there and most of the game stations had many players.

They had a cool game called Exarch which looked like Lineage II with power armor and guns. They were really pushing Shining Lore which was amazingly fun for me. You can get your hair done, and totally customize your character. I would have liked if it was a bit prettier and the game speed was faster, but oh well. I spent a good twenty minutes playing it before the game crashed. This game was really cool and it had a stage show with a crazy panda with a machine gun running around. I enjoyed this game a lot and would maybe play it.
I also took a look at City Of Heroes which looks really fun. But NC next time you wanna put ladies in spandex to parade around, get ones that don’t have stretch marks ^^. This game looked cool cause of all the neat character customization, you could basically be anything, and the graphics were smooth and pretty.

When I looked at their XBOX game Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, it was a lot like Dynasty Warriors. It was fun to be this really uber warrior in the middle of huge battles, but then when I had to do tactical stuff I was annoyed. I wish I could delegate all that stuff to the computer. That really brought the game down for me.

They had another game called Guild Wars, but I didn’t even play it because it looked horrible, but I’m sure it’s fun because many people were playing it. All in all when I asked about games, they seemed sort of knowledgeable. I didn’t like that I asked when a game would come out and they said they didn’t know, or maybe in 2004. Man, I want this game yesterday, said I!

I then tried to find Leilo and Capt. Sturm but was failing. The big scary bald guy was like we don’t have this Lineage 1 at e3. So I went up to this small cute blonde girl and said all professional like, “I’m from Lineage Compendium, one of the largest fan sites in America for NC, and I wondered if maybe I could talk to some of the staff that runs Lineage I and II?” She ran off but came back a little while saying she couldn’t find anyone, but to just hang around.
So I started playing Lineage II, which is a lot like Lineage 1 without stats. Every 20 or so levels it seemed you specialized in your class or multi classed, like in old D & D. So, I was talking to one of the NC guys about the game and asked about leveling past 50 like in Lineage I but he was unsure. He said they might have an American beta in fall of 2003 however, which was exciting. The combat and such seemed VERY slow, but skills and stuff was cool. I got to ride a dragon, the big flying one, and it covered a lot of area and breathed fire on the enemies.

NC also had a lot of cosplay people walking around, there were people dressed like Lin 2 knights and panda’s and super heroes walking around and fighting and stuff. About this time I looked over and saw Leilo, from NC!

I was surprised that she recognized me. O.0 I woulda given her a smooch but I didn’t want to get thrown out of E3 just then. We talked about Lineage II, and she said besides the cool graphics, the Lineage I players will see many familiar items in Lineage II. I asked about making a guild without having a prince, and she admitted to saying you could, but not knowing how.

We chatted a bit more and I asked about LoA coming to Dep and Ken and she said they really really wanted to bring them. She says they are discussing it with NCKorea. I asked her if she would release the levels of players again, and she said she would like to very soon. She says that the people banned had made an estimated 40 million adena.

After that I talked to Capt Sturm, who is much shorter than I would have thought ^^. [CaptSturm wants to add that he's 5'11" -amer] He said that there will be many changes to LoA for knights soon. He said that he wants to add many weapons that do decent damage and have extremely high + to hit, to get knights away from Mail Breakers. He also mentioned maybe adding Swords that do good damage and have a chance to cast firestorm or meteor strike occasionally. He also says he is mostly an elf guy, with a level 44 elf on LoA ^^. He said a lot of the problem with is he has to keep up with Korean content updates and therefore has to drop whatever he’s doing if Korea makes an update. He says the programmers are good about adding changes and are very helpful to him.

He says they are trying very hard to bring LoA changes to Depardieu and Ken Rahuel. And to just wait, it will happen, maybe not right away, but it will! He also says that if he could he’d re add the damage bonus and leave out soft AC but he cannot until he gets more control over the servers. He says he is like the guy in the corner who says stuff and hopes the other people listen to him. He also said that we may be in for another Heine type event soon. And LoA should expect some new content within a week or two.

Well, it's that time of year again. We're looking for reporters again on all servers (Ken, Dep, LoA and Test). If you're interested in being an LC reporter, we're going to do things a bit differently this time :)

We're trying to expand beyond the existing Spotlight system and have more places to find information. So, we have three positions we're recruiting for:

Server Spotlight Reporter: These reporters will meet the people making accomplishments in Lineage on their server: Levelling beyond 50, making high +ed items, holding castles for a long time, being mayor, making lots of money and anything which may come out in coming episodes which people might consider an "accomplishment".

Freelance Writers: We'll soon be launching a few new sections where you (if you get the job ;) will get your own section of LC on the front page (yes, the front page is being redesigned) where you can write about anything you want - an interview with your friends, your enemies, some hunting tricks, an advice article, anything Lineage related! Only apply for this job if you are sure you'll be able to write something *at least* once per week.

Researcher: If you're a researcher, you will wander the Giant area around the Tower of Insolence and people will cancel you and escort you to Oren. Just kidding! The job of a researcher is to help the Lineage community collect data about all the new updates that come out, as well as help collect data for the tests we do and keep the rest of us players informed about the effects of updates and such. Don't worry, you don't have to know everything, you'll be part of a great team! (If you play on LoA and want to help us get info on the differences between LoA and Ken/Dep/Test, we need you!)

Still with me? Alright, you've passed the first test! Now, for the application:

Server Spotlight Reporter: Write a spotlight on a friend of yours. It should be interesting and make me feel like I know the person's Lineage playstyle after I'm done reading it.

Freelance Writer: Write an opinion piece on some aspect of Lineage. Possible topics are "LoA server: Is it a success?" "How to hunt for b-scrolls" or "Account sharing: Is it a crime?"

Researcher: Go test something. It's up to you what it is - it can even be something we've already tested (ex: success rate of paralyze on a specific MR, the average amount g-heal gives HP). The important thing is not the results, but instead, how you did the test and making sure that you show that you know all the rules and conditions which can affect your test.

For the articles, please make sure it is about 1000 words. No length requirements on the researcher, but it should meet all the requirements I mentioned.

Submit your Lineage fan art! The art will be chosen based upon its relevant portrayal of the Lineage world and/or characters and adventures. The artist’s chosen name, character or real, will be displayed near the fan art on our site.

Please use the following guidelines for submissions:

The picture must be scanned into a graphical file format (GIF preferred, or JPEG).

The scanned image must be 150K in size or smaller – 800 x 600 resolution.

The image must reflect something related to Lineage; for example, a player character, an action scene involving Lineage (such as a siege), a hunt within Lineage, or a Lineage monster.

The image must not be sexually offensive, racially offensive, portray an image in bad taste (no gore or mutilations) or violate the Lineage User Agreement in any other way.

All visitors to the Lineage web site will be able to view this artwork and see the name of the artist that submitted it -- so this is your chance to display artistic talent!

Submissions should be entered via our Support Tool, found at http://support.lineage.com under the “Ask A Question” tab. Please be sure to select “Screenshots and Player Stories” under the Department tab and then attach your image file to the submission. Please be sure to include your real name, and a character name and server to which the artwork may be credited. All submissions become the property of NCsoft and may be used for advertising or promotional purposes.

The deadline for submissions for this round of Fan Art is Friday, May 23rd.

At the beginning of the meeting, they mentioned the introduction of their "Yes Yes" customer service campaign which features
some improvement to the way Lineage server is given in Korea (NC - Korea has a completely different system than we do, which is
more appropriate for Korea than the US).

They also mentioned Lineage Part II (which is just their name for the next few episodes, NOT a new game. Episode 1-12 is Lineage Part I), which features new classes and new forces. They want to change the game dynamics, so it
doesn't make some players feel like it's manual labor. They expect the Korean Test servers to get Episode 13 in June/July 2003.
The storyline will be that Ken Rauhel has been thrown out of Aden (congratulations everyone!), so he unites with the new class
to come back. There will also be a floating "sky city" which all levels will be able to enjoy.

Also mentioned: rebalancing and making adjustmenst such as widening castle doors, graphics will be renewed and the monster
AIs will be changed. There will be special dungeons and monsters, balancing quests and smaller improvements.

Q: Currently the royal class has many limitations on available
items. Are there any plans for updates?
A: We have alot of interest in the royal class, however, the royal class is not designed for fighting, so its true that
fighting is difficult. We can't do unbalanced updates on the prince classes.

Q: The two-handed weapons are not very effective and you can't wear a shield with them. Are there any plans to change
this?
A: We're currently considering the following updates (1) increasing the swing speed of spears (2) axes having more
damage and (3) all swords not getting damaged.

Q: Sieges are getting boring. Are there any plans to make them more fun?
A: There are plans for some siege improvements.

Q: It feels like other than Nature's Blessing, level 50 elven magic is pointless. Doesn't this mean that we have a level
50 elemental magic problem?
A: No plans to change this. The players will have to figure out how to make use of the magic.

Q: Wafers are too expensive, are there any plans to sell them at stores?
A: This is tied to gathering the ingredients for the wafers, so that would violate our basic design for the wafers. We
don't have any plans to have them being sold at stores. However, because they are expensive, we are considering lengthening the
duration of wafers.

Q: Blessed items - are there any advantages?
A: Currently, there is no advantage to blessed items, but they look neat. However, we are considering making some small
differences for blessed items.

Q: Currently, we're in a bad economic state. Are there any plans to lower the account fees?
A: It's not something I can change, I will report that.

Q: Alot of people are complaining about problems related to buying and selling. Will there be any improvements?
A: Currently, it's almost impossible to change the current system. To support the buying/selling/trading, we plan on
building a separate chat channel.

Q: People are abusing things like the Hell system, by using it in ways that it was not originally designed for. What are
the plans for it?
A: The new episodes will have more than 2 ways to reduce your PK count. For example, there will be a quest to reduce
your PK count and the duel system will be modified.

Q: When you raise a character and you think that it's a cursed character so you want to start over, you can't use your ID.
Can you just make it so you can go back to level 1.
A: I think that's impossible. We will consider perhaps putting in delays for taking a name with a different account than
when the character was created.

Q: When you get disconnected from Lineage, sometimes you character remains online and you die. Are you aware of these
situations and are you fixing them?
A: Client and connection related issues we can't do much about. If it's something that the server did, we would recover
your experience.

Q: Blood to Soul delay, are you planning on reducing it?
A: No. It was originally designed for non-battle situations.

Q: Are we going to be able to sell Spirit Crystals?
A: Yes, a future update will allow you to do that.

Q: What do you consider to be the average level and items?
A: We consider the average user as the majority of the population. Statistically, we see that we have many users ranging
from 2-3 hours per day to 24 hours per day. We plan to add more quests to help the more casual player out.

Q: I spent alot of money on +7 Dragon Armor, however since the Ancient Plate Mail, the +7 Dragon Armor has no point. What
are you going to do about that?
A: We are going to make changes to the DSM. Don't sell it, wait.

Q: The effect of berserker axe is 1.5x damage and haste effect. Is there anything else?I put in a question to NC support to confirm this -amerA: There will be upgrades on 2 handed weapons and the berserker axe. You can expect an unbelievable improvement to those
weapons.

Q: With non-PvP servers auto-looting, even if you are in party, there is no way to tell who gets which drops. Are there
any updates planned for this?
A: No, that is for you players to figure out amongst yourselves.

Q: Can you consider having NPCs that can access Elven storage from each town?
A: That's a good suggestion, we'll consider that.

Q: Can you do something about the enchant probability so that instead of disappearing, it does +0?
A: Enchant probability hasn't been touched for 3 years. We don't think it's a critical issue at this point.

Q: With non-PvP server auto-looting, if one player initiates the fight and draws the attack, another player could come in
later and get the drop. Can you give more consideration for who hit first?
A: We're going to look into the issue.

Q: Alot of other games have macro systems, but with some of the changes made to the client, the programs that were
previously allowed, don't work any more. Can you add a macro system?
A: There will be interface updates, after that, macros will be possible.

Q: It would be nice if a message comes up when your friend logs in.
A: We've considered it, but there are limitations that have made it not possible to implement.

Q: When you become a level 50 elf, sometimes you teleport a great distance away from your bookmarks using the level 50
bonus..
A: Currently with blessed teleport scrolls, it's almost pointless to even have a level 50 teleport bonus. We are
considering giving level 50 elves a different bonus.

Q: Can you put an on/off on pledge chat?
A: It is possible to do that, however, there can be alot of game-related issues. For example, you might miss an
important pledge message. If there weren't issues like that, we would have done it already.

Q: During pledge battles, you can't leave the pledge, so you can be taken away by a mage's mass teleport against your will
for grief play. What are you going to do about it?
A: We're very concerned with this issue and we hope to change it soon.

Q: There are alot of lag issues because people are just standing around pledge battles and watching. Can you put them in
spectator mode or keep non-participants away from the castle?
A: There will be siege updates that will hopefully address these issues.

Q: Mages can't fight -- we can't do close combat with weapons, we can't use magic to fight, we can't do anything. The only
thing left is curse magic, which makes you chaotic quickly. How do you expect mages to play? Shouldn't you get rid of lawful
penalties?
A: That was decided based on alot of tests and lots of people abusing mage magic. We don't think that will change.

Q: Can you make an update that gives you choices between teleporting to your house and teleporting to the nearest town?
A: We are currently modifying that. We will probably add a new scroll which will teleport you to your House and remove
that feature from the Scroll of Escape.

Q: I play Prince, I want to know about the unintroduced item "Glowing Aura". When do you think this item will be added and
when it gets added, can you increase the duration?
A: We don't know when Glowing Aura is coming out. However, when it does come out, we will do plenty of tests on how it
combines with other magic and it's duration.

Q: The mayor system is currently pointless because the highest level is always the mayor. Are there any plans to change
that?
A: We will be making changes to fix the mayor system.
When asked about the duel system, they also mentioned that they are going to be making improvements to the duel system, such as
adding a special type of marking to set a player

/duel system introduced to PvP servers (non-PvP server duel system will be implemented at a later time). When you die, you do lose XP. However, you don't drop items. If you teleport or restart, that is considered a loss. You don't become chaotic for killing another player in PvP, but, if 2 people are in a duel and a player hits one of the players in the duel, a guard will come after the player that interferes with the duel.

Windows XP bug with making new pledges has been fixed.

You can teleport to Aden from each town except Orc Town.

You can toggle incoming mail using the /mail command. (/mail on to receive, /mail off to block)

Re-enabled /music command (/music on to turn on the music, /music off to mute it)

Between 3:20 and 4:00 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 7th, we experienced issues related to the network maintenance that affected connectivity to the North American Lineage Servers. Our Network Operations and Customer Support groups will be working to determine those characters that died due to the service interruption and will be restoring any lost items, dogs, or experience as warranted.

Join us on the Depardieu, Ken Rauhel, and Lands of Aden servers this weekend for a polymorph event! All players will have access to the additional polymorph options of Death Knight, Baphomet, Beleth, Minotaur, Dark Elf, Demon, Succubus, and Yeti. The event will commence with a brief server reset at 10:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 8th and will end with another brief server reset at 10:00 AM CDT on Monday, May 12th.

Service to the Lineage US game servers and website will be briefly interrupted at 3:00 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 7th while we replace some network hardware. Announcements will be made in-game prior to the reset. We expect total downtime to remain less than 15 minutes.

All US Lineage servers will be brought down for a maintenance reset on Wednesday, May 7th at 10:00 AM CDT. There will be no new content published at that time, however we will be conducting some network maintenance upgrades during the maintenance period.

Lineage Tournamnet (LiTo for short) has recently (within the past month) become a new service offered by NC to the Lineage services in Korea.

LiTo allows players from all Lineage servers to play together in a variety of matches and maps with no experience loss and no penalties which are normally associated with combat in the original Lineage service. Players bring their existing characters in and have an allowance to purchase supplies for each match. Players also get a rating and are ranked against a variety of criteria.

NC - US has hinted that maybe LiTo would come the the US someday soon, so we put these pages together based on our translations on the Korean LiTo service and we hope it will help in encouraging the US players to be informed about LiTo, provide a background for any future LiTo news we might post, as well as generate some interest for people who didn't know. ^^

Well, looks like we've once again outgrown a service. Thanks to the popularity of lineagecompendium.com, it comes time to move from a shared service to a dedicated service. I've spent the weekend preparing our new home, and the DNS servers across the world will be getting updated soon.

Thanks to our donors which make our move easier! :)

If you see this message, that means you are on the NEW server. Welcome!

The new system will be faster with less downtime and with more flexibility to give us more LC features. If you see any weird behavior, please email me (or post in this thread on the NEW server).

Joining us for this round of questions and answers was Amer – owner and operator of the Lineage Compendium and Lineage 2 Compendium fansites. Amer’s responses were based on questions submitted via the Lineage Message Boards and cover everything from the behind-the-scenes time and effort spent running an online game fansite, to hints at some of the new functions appearing on his site in the future. We appreciate the time Amer took to answer these questions and look forward to showcasing more Lineage community leaders in the future!

Kirby, an elf in the Tomorrow pledge on LoA server, showed me an interesting difference on the LoA servers (remember, this does not apply to Dep/Ken).

It appears that the Dragon Armor on LoA server gives you 10% elemental resistance, which had been a dream of many of the Dep/Ken players for quite some time. Pictured is Kirby's LinWeb, which he revealed to me to prove the MR.